Recent work, using the tripod and a rant about decals and hobby magazines.

I love my tripod.

It makes taking pictures so much easier. And more fun too actually. This is pretty much the exact way that it looks with the lighting in my room. My room lighting is a bit softer but this is pretty close. Tungsten white balance setting. Just wanted to show off the pics of what I've been working on recently.

You can see with the tripod that the details of the parts really come out. Even on the Sinanju piping for the lower torso... you can see that I missed a couple of tiny spots when I took this picture. I think I got most of them later... it was done by Gundam markers so... it's not perfect. I didn't want to spray it because I wanted the spring underneath to remain its original colour.

The most intricate detailing I've done so far is painting the crest on the front of neck piece, black. It's really tiny and took a bit of work to get it symmetrical.

GM Command shield... took a bit more work than I anticipated.

1. I painted the spare magazines on the inside.
2. Also did a panel line wash on the inside.
3. Fed crest had to be filed down so the paint would stick on the topmost edge.
4. Fed crest was also painted by gold Gundam marker and lined in black very lightly.
5. Shield vents at the top gave me some trouble. Started with a black Gundam marker just on the edges (not the inside. It was very difficult to do with a marker. It would have been easier with a brush). It looked too bold so I tried to get rid of it with thinner and made a big mess, but ended up doing my panel lines in the process. Blessing in disguise maybe. Looked at GM Command art for reference. Vents are grey and solid inside and out. Went for gunmetal with a brush (so much easier on all fronts) and easy clean up job with a knife. Just dragged it around the outside edges of the vent to get that nice curve. Worked perfectly. Better than masking probably.

Now it is time for my rants.

Rant # 1 - Waterslide decals

First time to use them and I'm NOT impressed. I bought an extra set and tried them out on the GM Command and found the whole process to be messy and inefficient. And in the end they didn't stick for me. Or they got stuck in the wrong place. Or they ripped. Dry transfer or stickers with mark setter all the way for me. There was probably something wrong with my technique but I can now officially say that I'm not a fan of water slide decals. At all.

Rant # 2 - Hobby Japan vs. Dengeki Hobby

Went to a book store yesterday and was taking a look at this month’s Dengeki Hobby and realized that it is a superior magazine to Hobby Japan. Never mind the give aways, but they give you decent posters of real kits with/or computer assisted art instead of the standard GFF line art posters that Hobby Japan gives you.

Not to mention this month’s massive 10 page spread on PG Astray... Hobby Japan had TWO and they were like the Bandai press release stuff. NOT impressed.

Unfortunately I made a subscription with Hobby Japan so I'm getting them every month but I won't be renewing it. Dengeki Hobby seems to be better to me. Smaller, better content (Gundam wise at least) and better models. This month’s photo shoot on the GNX-3 A Laws was beautiful! They painted it in like a... metallic ruby colour. Just gorgeous. But in Hobby Japan this month it's all Zaku's and tanks! Who cares?! Is this 1979 and people are still going crazy over how great the Zaku is?! Ugh...

End rant.

Anyways I was not happy about yesterday's revelations. Other than that... it seems like my enthusiasm for modelling as came back. It helps when you can see the progress quickly. It kind of inspires you to keep going. Just going to keep plugging away until the Red Frame comes out and then we'll see what happens then.